March 5, 2024 • 32 mins
Christena Stephens joins Scott and Gene to dissect the enduring mystery of the unsolved 1943 Littlefield murders with her book Bound in Silence: An Unsolved Murder in a Small Texas Town (Texas A&M Press, 2024). Join us as we discuss the dark narrative of Dr. Roy and Mae Hunt's brutal killing, a crime that shattered the peace of their small West Texas town.
Bound in Silence: An Unsolved Murder in a Small Texas Town https://www.tamupress.com/book/9798987900208/bound-in-silence/
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast is not sponsored by.
It does not reflect the viewsof the institutions that employ
us.
It is solely our thoughts andideas, based upon our
professional training and studyof the past.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to Talking Texas History, the podcast that
explores Texas history beforeand beyond the Alamo.
Not only will we talk Texashistory, we'll visit with folks
who teach it, write it, supportit, and with some who've made it
and, of course, all of us wholive it and love it.
Welcome to another edition ofTalking Texas History.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'm Gene Pruice.
I'm Scott Soseby.
Gene, it looks like and soundslike that this will be our
second in a row of murder inMayhem in West Texas as we do
this.
So tell everybody who we havewith us today.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, we have Christina Stevens, who is we've
known for a while, and,Christina, tell everybody a
little bit about yourself, ifthey haven't already met you who
you are, what you do, whereyou're from.
All that good stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
All that good stuff, gene, you know me since like
what?
2006?
Yeah, it goes back all the wayto 2006 with the Mallet Ranch
project.
So, yeah, it has been quite awhile.
So hello everybody, thank youfor joining in on this podcast.
A little bit about me I havetwo master's degrees from Texas
(01:35):
Tech University and one wassupposed to be my PhD in
environmental toxicology andthen I decided I could not stand
that professor for workingunder him for another four or
five years, so I walked awaywith the second masters and I
(01:57):
went in heavily into nonprofitwork where I was starting and
founding and guiding and leadingnonprofits.
Then I became a professionalphotographer through actually
through my Mallet Ranch work,which started back in 2006, and
(02:18):
still a professionalphotographer today, and my work
part of it.
I actually wound up working fora nonprofit foundation in Ford
County, texas, where I was awildlife biologist for eight
years and other than my boss atthat time.
(02:42):
That was probably the bestexperience I could have ever had
, because it gave me the abilityto biologically monitor
wildlife from all angles for aneight year period.
So it was kind of like I wasmonitoring.
I wasn't just like there for aFebruary.
(03:04):
I was able to do it like foreight February's and I still
have tons of research that I'vegot to figure out.
What I'm going to do with tonsof photos and what I'm going to
do with those I have no idea yet.
And right now I'm working forthe USDA and my home office is
(03:27):
actually in Brownfield and I'm anatural resources specialist
for USDA NRCS, and probably mymost significant achievement is
me being the president of theNational Intel Booker Mountain
Dog Association.
This is a national organizationand I came on board as
(03:53):
president where it had to leadthe organization through
organizational change management, and I'm very proud of that
accomplishment.
There are probably more thanyou wanted to know, but then, at
the same time, I'm also anauthor of the book that we're
here to talk about today.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
That is correct.
And you know, first offpresident of any national
organization biological stuff inUSDA that is so far above Jean
and my pay grade I'm.
You know we're just in aweabout the natural Don't even let
us join national organizations,much less be a president one.
So I mean, that's how it goes.
But we are here to talk about abook you have coming out.
(04:33):
It's out, it's just out, brandnew out from Texas A&M press,
titled Bound in Silence.
An unsolved murder in a smallTexas town Takes place in
Littlefield, texas 1943, whichwe all know is a lot of cotton,
wayland Jennings hometown.
And then, other than that, tellus about Littlefield and a
little bit about the book.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
You know Littlefield, texas it grew out of.
You know the vast, wide openspaces of what was the line OS
to Cotto.
It really came into its ownwhen the train system finally
came through and, if I amremembering my history correctly
, I think it was part of the XITranch.
(05:15):
I'm not sure if I'm rememberingthat correctly.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You are correct, it was part of that until George
Littlefield bought part of theland.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
And so, you know, littlefield just sprang up and
it, you know, as with any town,small town in this part of Texas
, it grew and it grew.
And then all of a sudden, youknow, with the way life is with
many people, you know, industrymoves, career shifts, they, kids
(05:49):
don't want to stay in smallcommunities anymore, people
don't want to stay in smallcommunities anymore.
So the town is kind of reallydying.
I mean, you have to imagine, in1943, the Main Street of
Littlefield, every singlebuilding on Main Street had some
(06:10):
viable open business, whetherit was bank, restaurant, you
know, clothing store, pharmacy.
And now you drive down MainStreet and Littlefield and it's
just, it is really depressing,it really is, because so many of
those great stores they're nolonger there anymore because the
(06:34):
economy just could not sustainthose built those businesses.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Tell us what happened on the morning of October 26,
1943.
What did the police find?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
So what the police actually discovered was after
you had an older lady that wasgetting ready for her day.
She was walking out to her carand all of a sudden she heard
two little girls running andscreaming towards her.
(07:10):
That couple went into the houseand actually took the youngest
daughter back into the housewith them, and what that couple
discovered was the bound andbeaten bodies of Dr Roy Hunt and
May Hunt, and what ensued was,before even the crime scene was
(07:35):
secured you probably had closeto over 30 someone people walk
through that house just so thatthey could get a glimpse of the
bodies, because it was a smalltown.
Rumor mill flew like crazy andyou probably had people picking
(07:58):
up the phone, you probably hadpeople running down the street,
whatever.
And so as the morningprogressed, you had, like the DA
friend plain view show up.
You had sheriff's deputies, youhad the Texas Rangers all show
(08:23):
up in this tiny little house andtrying to figure out what had
happened.
And what had happened was theDr Roy had actually had been
slightly beaten, his jaw hadbeen bashed in and he had been
shot point-blank range in themiddle of his head and May had
(08:47):
also been severely beaten.
And what ensued was the person,the killer, actually tying them
separately up, tying themseparately up, and then they
were both tied to each other andthen in a weird assortment of,
(09:08):
I mean, it was like from lampcords to rope to fishing line,
and then you had panties laidover both of them.
And so this is what kind ofensued and started this whole
process of this small town beingrocked in October 26, 1943, by
(09:34):
this heinous double murder.
But it really wasn't the firstmurder that actually happened in
Littlefield, it was just themost.
It was the one that grabbednationwide attention at that
time.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
It's a bizarre scene and it's a kind of to your mind.
Whoever did it, they took sometime doing it, it wasn't just a
spur of the moment thing andalmost sounds like I don't know,
a crime of passion of some kind.
I mean at least extreme anger.
But so tell us about Roy andMay Hunt.
Who were they and what did theydo in Littlefield and why is
(10:14):
that significant to the story?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So Roy was actually.
He grew up in Lubbock and hisfamily was the George M Hunt's
and George M Hunt actually foundit, helped found Esticado and
then the Hunt.
He actually moved from Esticadoover to Lubbock and actually it
(10:41):
was one of the founders earlyfounders of Lubbock and he was
Roy's grandfather.
And so Roy grew up, went toLubbock High School, he
eventually went to University ofTexas in Austin and then he
(11:01):
transferred to become a doctorin Galveston.
May Hunt herself and I really Istruggled for years trying to
get as much research as I couldon her, but she came from, she
grew up in Houston and shegraduated from high school and
(11:23):
then she decided she wanted tobecome a nurse and when Roy
transferred from Galveston toJeff Davis Hospital they're in
Houston to do his internship andhis residency.
That's when they met and theylater married and they moved to
(11:46):
Littlefield because Roy had beenoffered a partnership in the
Littlefield Hospital with DrDuke and that's kind of how they
came to Littlefield when solike when you even think about
in today's society of how theyweren't like big celebrities,
(12:10):
these were just regular smalltown people trying to raise
their family because they hadtheir first daughter, joanne,
and then along came Jane, andwhen you think, at least when I
think about Littlefield, aboutespecially in the 1940s, I look
(12:33):
at it as being a veryquintessential town, to where
everybody knew everybody's name,everybody knew everybody's
phone number, everybody kneweverybody, and it was that
really small town atmosphere.
But there was like probablythere was nothing really
(13:02):
remarkable about Roy or May.
It was just that they were twopeople living their lives trying
to raise their families ortrying to raise their family
there in Littlefield at thattime.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Well, kristina, was there any indication that
somebody may have been out toget them?
I mean to be honest, thiswasn't the first time that
somebody tried to kill the goodDoctor Hunt, was it?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I know it wasn't.
So this is where the storytakes a really interesting turn.
It was a year before I think itwas about 18 months earlier,
which would have been May of1942, doctor Hunt was actually
almost murdered on the outskirtsof Littlefield.
(13:51):
And what happened was he turnedaround and accused another
Doctor of this attempted murder,and that Doctor was actually
from Cameron, texas.
So there is still, even when Ithink about this and going back
(14:12):
to my research, there is still alot of speculation on.
You know, did this reallyhappen?
I mean, did Newton actuallyshoot him or was it somebody
else?
And Doctor Newton?
(14:33):
Eventually he was tried likethree different times and then
Doctor Newton was finallyconvicted of attempted the
attempted murder of Roy, evenafter Roy had been killed.
So that's where this startsreally getting a deeper mystery
(14:55):
into a mystery, because you'relike, okay, what is going on
here, what I mean?
You have to believe the Doctor,but at the same time, was he
actually telling the truth?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well, it was all wrapped up in a love affair,
right?
That's the background story.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
That's the background story.
But the only background storythat I found was the fact that
at one time when Doctor Hunt wasthere at Jeff Davis, he had
dated Doctor Newton's wife atthat time and that was really
(15:37):
the only connection there was.
You know, rumors andspeculation they can.
You know people, they can runrampage.
We all can say, oh well, youknow, have our own thought
processes, our own.
You know, yeah, this isprobably what happened.
(15:58):
But it's kind of like when itboiled down to you, it was still
all speculation here, say, andthere was never really any
concrete evidence.
And that's what I really triedto present in this book was the
fact that all of this happenedbut in the end there was really
no concrete evidence, especiallyof Doctor Newton shooting Roy
(16:21):
in 1942.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Well, you've done a lot of research.
What do you think?
I mean, do you think that thatwas that this Doctor Newton
killed him, or was it somebodyelse?
Speaker 3 (16:35):
It was somebody else.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I think it was somebody else.
So when the police got thereLittle Pills, in small town,
even once, then you know I'msure it was a did they have a
police department or was it asheriff's department?
But they began investigating.
What did they find?
Did they do a good job?
Can you blame some of them?
Maybe what happened on thepolice afterwards?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Oh, yes, most definitely.
So you know, this is where thestory gets become.
It becomes even more stranger.
So they zeroed in on anothersuspect, on a prime suspect.
Were they actual murderersthemselves in Galveston, texas,
like less than 48 hours later?
(17:16):
And when you even start tryingto put those pieces together,
it's kind of those pieces theydon't match to make a picture,
they don't, they don't mesh, andthere's still.
There's like there's a holehere or there's a hole here, and
(17:38):
there was never any real clearindication on why the Texas
Rangers zeroed in on this onesuspect.
Two days later, I let's see.
There was Littlefield,plainview, lamisa and Nolan
County.
He went to trial four times forthe murder of Roy.
(17:59):
He was always convicted but atthe same time it was always
overturned at the appealsprocess due to you know what the
lower court presented in courtfor the evidence and to bring
this case to trial.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
This guy Thompson Wright, I think was the person
who kind of gets all the blame.
He was a career criminal,wasn't he?
He died in committing crimeseventually, right?
So maybe he was just suspicious.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
So his name was Jim Thomas and you know, like
anybody back then I guess, hewas always trying to find a way
to make a quick buck.
So he was involved in a coupleof bank robberies.
He was involved in doing somewhite capping type enterprise
(19:06):
stuff in Waco.
But they never ever came outand said in all of my research
it was kind of like Jim Thomas,he never really killed anybody.
I mean, honestly, there wasnever a smoking gun or anything
(19:26):
that was directed right at JimThomas.
And yes, he did die.
He was shot himself in DurantOklahoma years later and once
that happened it was kind oflike, oh well, we're just
(19:46):
closing the case completely onthe hunt because we still
believe that Jim Thomas did this.
And I will tell you right now.
The really the amazing part ofthis whole story is how my book
became published.
I sent this off.
I was scared to death becauseI'm like nobody.
(20:09):
I was scared of putting my workout there.
I don't know how it was goingto be received.
I still don't know how it'sgoing to be received, but I sent
it off to three publishers andStony Creek Publishing came back
and Lauren Steffi he asked methe one question.
(20:29):
He said I read through the bookand he said do you think Jim
Thomas did it?
And I was like, came back and Isaid no, I don't.
And he said if you will do thisand do this and then if you
will give your own thoughts ofwhat you think actually happened
to this whole case, he said Iwant to publish the book.
(20:54):
So I'm extremely grateful forthat.
But the other thing that I wantto point out about what makes
this book so spectacular, orthis story so spectacular and so
grippy, is the fact that JoanneHunt she was five years old,
she was the only one who saw theactual murderer in her parents'
(21:22):
house and Joanne basically,yeah, the cops tried to talk to
her, the sheriff at that time,he tried, but he didn't really
talk to her.
And then after she wastransported to Vernon Texas, she
was bound to silence for 70years and she never talked to
(21:47):
anybody about her story.
She never even talked to hersister, jane, about her story,
about what happened in thathouse that night.
That is the most significantpart of this, because I have her
story.
Nobody else has the story.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
That's unbelievable, that's amazing.
So sounds like the police, theTexas Rangers, like they often
do, zeroed in on one person.
Did they ever think about anyother suspects?
Was there anybody else ever onthe radar for this?
They just it's the one, he'sthe only one, nobody else.
And you're working at this.
Would you come up with anybodyelse that may have done it?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Okay.
So my thing is, what I came upwith it was somebody that knows
them, that knew them at thattime and it knew them intimately
, that knew the layout of thehouse and the true victim was
never the true.
(22:49):
The actual victim was neversupposed to be Roy.
May was always May because ifyou remember, scott, what you
said at the very beginning ofthis podcast about the passion
and all of that, if you look atthe facts and you look at the
(23:10):
prime scene photos and you putall those pieces together, may
was always the victim.
She was the target.
It was never about Roy, wow.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Who could that have been?
Was it?
We're talking about anotherlove triangle, perhaps, or
something?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
like that.
We have to wait till the bookcomes in, maybe.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Yeah, you'll have to wait for the book.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Well, I gotta say you know I knew of this crime
because I did an oral historywhen I worked at the Southwest
Collection with Harold LaFont,who I think was the DA in Lamb
County at the time, and heshowed me, he gave me to put in
the Southwest Collectionphotographs.
(24:00):
They never made it in therebecause they were really graphic
and so I've seen the murderscene and the police and I think
I shared those with you a longtime ago and you know, I gotta
say you know you're talkingabout how the daughter didn't
(24:20):
speak about it for 70 years.
I can imagine she was quitetraumatized and it took a long
time to get over that.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Well, it's not so much that she was traumatized,
it was the fact that her aunt,at that time where she was
staying, said that she wouldnever get to see her baby sister
Jane ever again.
If she spoke about whathappened in that house ever
again, really yes.
So Jane Joanne, actually, yes,she did testify in court.
(24:56):
But you know, even back thenprosecutors, the DA's lawyers,
they didn't really sit down andtry to talk to witnesses before
they brought them up on thewitness stand.
It was always like, you know,they leaned it and yes, we do
this podcast.
(25:16):
Yeah Well, I mean, you know,Jean, I wanted to tell you that
it's kind of like so, after Idid that paper presentation,
they're in Lubbock and that waswhat the largest presentation
attendance ever by any WestTexas at any West Texas
(25:37):
Historical Associationconference meeting.
And then you walked up as meand Cecily are sitting there on
the couch and you tell meChristina, you need to turn this
into the book.
Oh, and, by the way, I had theoriginal crime scene photos.
Do you know what that did to me?
It was kind of like, oh my gosh, I you know.
(25:58):
And then those pieces startedfalling in place.
And, yeah, it took a long timefor me to get this done.
But you know what Life happens.
And life happens you have todeal with what you're dealt,
what is put on your plate, andthen you move on, and then you
get brave and then all of asudden decide, okay, in one, you
(26:22):
know, one night.
Here goes, you know, my threeproposals all to three
publishers.
We'll see what happens.
And this is where we are today.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
So how long total?
Christina?
Did you work on this book?
I mean, we've all had projectsthat take us a long time, so
give us you know it sounds likebits and start.
How long did you work on thisbook?
Speaker 3 (26:42):
So it was over 10 years.
It really was.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
But you know, look, a lot of people work on books for
a long, long time, so I thinkthat you know you had plenty of
time to think about it, and soit's probably a better book now
than it would have been 10 yearsago.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Oh, absolutely.
It's a better book than itwould have been even five years
ago.
I mean, you have to understand,I was trying to consider
telling this story and at thesame time, when it was almost
like I've always wanted to throwin my speculation of what
(27:32):
happened, especially afterdealing with this for so long
and being immersed in it for solong.
And when Lauren came back andsaid, you know, if you add what
you actually think, your authorsthought that was just like oh
my gosh, he is.
You know, he is the person thatneeds to do this, he gets it,
(27:57):
he understands what needs tohappen with this.
So there you have it.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
So this case is officially closed.
I guess you said after becausethey just decided that Jim
Thomas did it and even they didit that it's officially closed.
So do you think there's anychance that it could be reopened
?
That somebody might actuallyhey look, let's find out who did
it Some cold-clays people orsomething like that.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
I think, if so, in my gut, in my gut, there is still
somebody out there that knowssomething.
I could be mistaken, but that'smy gut.
Sometimes my gut does not lieor lead me astray.
I think that there is somethingout there.
(28:52):
Technically, even though, yes,they said the case was closed
after the murder of Jim Thomas,this is still an unsolved murder
.
It's an unsolved double murderbecause you have no answers as
to who, as to why.
I mean yes, I alluded to thewhy in my author's thoughts.
(29:14):
Even with Joanne's narrativethat's in this book, you pick up
on that, that's.
The other thing I'd like to sayis the fact that until I heard
Joanne's story and I heard ittwice, that's when I started
putting the pieces together thatit was.
(29:34):
This was about May, it wasnever about Roy.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Well, that sounds really interesting.
One of the things that I thinkthat it tells us you hit upon
this is that policing in law andorder weren't like the TV shows
that we see today, or even thereal justice system.
It's long, it's complex and,back in those days, probably a
(30:05):
little bit more naive than it istoday.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Oh yes, and I mean mistakes even today still happen
and still occur.
But even it was more so evenback then, even with the birth
of forensics and what wasavailable back then.
And even I go into that in achapter of that because I
(30:30):
remember it, one presentation Ididn't love it.
I had a wonderful little oldlady speak up and she was like
well, can't you go back and digthose bodies up and get some DNA
off of them?
And I just, you know, it'sthose moments that it makes you.
That is what carried this bookto where it is today.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Before we go.
Chris, I meant to ask you thisearlier and I just get carried
away and it didn't.
You know, paul Cross used topress on Jean and I probably you
probably heard him say this too.
Titles mean thing.
Tell everybody why the titlebound in silence.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Oh my gosh, you are going to.
You're going to be amazed bythis.
So this book has evolved withso many titles over the years
and it came down to it earlylast year where my publisher was
like we need a title, we need atitle, you need to come up with
(31:28):
a title.
So Jenny, who is really youknow, she is my best friend we
were on the phone.
We got on the phone with eachother and we started, you know,
writing things out, typingthings out, and with her
(31:48):
collaboration, that's what wecame up with was the bound in
silence.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
It's a great title.
I wish I could come up withgreat titles.
I've never had a title.
That's stuck.
You know the editors go that'snice and they change it.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah, and you know, the great thing about Lauren was
the fact that you know he wasvery, you know he was very hands
on with this entire process,but at the same time, once we
decided on this, he was like,yeah, let's go for it.
So that's how that titleevolved.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
That's great.
Well, christina, I think 30minutes that comes quickly all
the time when we do this, so soI just want to remind everybody.
First off, thanks for talkingto us.
It's been great.
This is fantastic.
I didn't know.
I'd kind of heard of this, Ididn't know this much about it
and I can't wait till the bookgets here so I can read it.
It's from Texas A&M UniversityPress.
Found in silence an unsolvedmurder in a small Texas town.
(32:46):
Thank you for being with us somuch.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Thank you both Thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Thank you, Christina.
This podcast is not sponsored by.
It does not reflect the viewsof the institutions that employ
us.
It is solely our thoughts andideas, based upon our
professional training and studyof the past.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to Talking Texas History, the podcast that
explores Texas history beforeand beyond the Alamo.
Not only will we talk Texashistory, we'll visit with folks
who teach it, write it, supportit, and with some who've made it
and, of course, all of us wholive it and love it.
Welcome to another edition ofTalking Texas History.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I'm Gene Pruice.
I'm Scott Soseby.
Gene, it looks like and soundslike that this will be our
second in a row of murder inMayhem in West Texas as we do
this.
So tell everybody who we havewith us today.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, we have Christina Stevens, who is we've
known for a while, and,Christina, tell everybody a
little bit about yourself, ifthey haven't already met you who
you are, what you do, whereyou're from.
All that good stuff.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
All that good stuff, gene, you know me since like
what?
2006?
Yeah, it goes back all the wayto 2006 with the Mallet Ranch
project.
So, yeah, it has been quite awhile.
So hello everybody, thank youfor joining in on this podcast.
A little bit about me I havetwo master's degrees from Texas
(01:35):
Tech University and one wassupposed to be my PhD in
environmental toxicology andthen I decided I could not stand
that professor for workingunder him for another four or
five years, so I walked awaywith the second masters and I
(01:57):
went in heavily into nonprofitwork where I was starting and
founding and guiding and leadingnonprofits.
Then I became a professionalphotographer through actually
through my Mallet Ranch work,which started back in 2006, and
(02:18):
still a professionalphotographer today, and my work
part of it.
I actually wound up working fora nonprofit foundation in Ford
County, texas, where I was awildlife biologist for eight
years and other than my boss atthat time.
(02:42):
That was probably the bestexperience I could have ever had
, because it gave me the abilityto biologically monitor
wildlife from all angles for aneight year period.
So it was kind of like I wasmonitoring.
I wasn't just like there for aFebruary.
(03:04):
I was able to do it like foreight February's and I still
have tons of research that I'vegot to figure out.
What I'm going to do with tonsof photos and what I'm going to
do with those I have no idea yet.
And right now I'm working forthe USDA and my home office is
(03:27):
actually in Brownfield and I'm anatural resources specialist
for USDA NRCS, and probably mymost significant achievement is
me being the president of theNational Intel Booker Mountain
Dog Association.
This is a national organizationand I came on board as
(03:53):
president where it had to leadthe organization through
organizational change management, and I'm very proud of that
accomplishment.
There are probably more thanyou wanted to know, but then, at
the same time, I'm also anauthor of the book that we're
here to talk about today.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
That is correct.
And you know, first offpresident of any national
organization biological stuff inUSDA that is so far above Jean
and my pay grade I'm.
You know we're just in aweabout the natural Don't even let
us join national organizations,much less be a president one.
So I mean, that's how it goes.
But we are here to talk about abook you have coming out.
(04:33):
It's out, it's just out, brandnew out from Texas A&M press,
titled Bound in Silence.
An unsolved murder in a smallTexas town Takes place in
Littlefield, texas 1943, whichwe all know is a lot of cotton,
wayland Jennings hometown.
And then, other than that, tellus about Littlefield and a
little bit about the book.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
You know Littlefield, texas it grew out of.
You know the vast, wide openspaces of what was the line OS
to Cotto.
It really came into its ownwhen the train system finally
came through and, if I amremembering my history correctly
, I think it was part of the XITranch.
(05:15):
I'm not sure if I'm rememberingthat correctly.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You are correct, it was part of that until George
Littlefield bought part of theland.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
And so, you know, littlefield just sprang up and
it, you know, as with any town,small town in this part of Texas
, it grew and it grew.
And then all of a sudden, youknow, with the way life is with
many people, you know, industrymoves, career shifts, they, kids
(05:49):
don't want to stay in smallcommunities anymore, people
don't want to stay in smallcommunities anymore.
So the town is kind of reallydying.
I mean, you have to imagine, in1943, the Main Street of
Littlefield, every singlebuilding on Main Street had some
(06:10):
viable open business, whetherit was bank, restaurant, you
know, clothing store, pharmacy.
And now you drive down MainStreet and Littlefield and it's
just, it is really depressing,it really is, because so many of
those great stores they're nolonger there anymore because the
(06:34):
economy just could not sustainthose built those businesses.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Tell us what happened on the morning of October 26,
1943.
What did the police find?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
So what the police actually discovered was after
you had an older lady that wasgetting ready for her day.
She was walking out to her carand all of a sudden she heard
two little girls running andscreaming towards her.
(07:10):
That couple went into the houseand actually took the youngest
daughter back into the housewith them, and what that couple
discovered was the bound andbeaten bodies of Dr Roy Hunt and
May Hunt, and what ensued was,before even the crime scene was
(07:35):
secured you probably had closeto over 30 someone people walk
through that house just so thatthey could get a glimpse of the
bodies, because it was a smalltown.
Rumor mill flew like crazy andyou probably had people picking
(07:58):
up the phone, you probably hadpeople running down the street,
whatever.
And so as the morningprogressed, you had, like the DA
friend plain view show up.
You had sheriff's deputies, youhad the Texas Rangers all show
(08:23):
up in this tiny little house andtrying to figure out what had
happened.
And what had happened was theDr Roy had actually had been
slightly beaten, his jaw hadbeen bashed in and he had been
shot point-blank range in themiddle of his head and May had
(08:47):
also been severely beaten.
And what ensued was the person,the killer, actually tying them
separately up, tying themseparately up, and then they
were both tied to each other andthen in a weird assortment of,
(09:08):
I mean, it was like from lampcords to rope to fishing line,
and then you had panties laidover both of them.
And so this is what kind ofensued and started this whole
process of this small town beingrocked in October 26, 1943, by
(09:34):
this heinous double murder.
But it really wasn't the firstmurder that actually happened in
Littlefield, it was just themost.
It was the one that grabbednationwide attention at that
time.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
It's a bizarre scene and it's a kind of to your mind.
Whoever did it, they took sometime doing it, it wasn't just a
spur of the moment thing andalmost sounds like I don't know,
a crime of passion of some kind.
I mean at least extreme anger.
But so tell us about Roy andMay Hunt.
Who were they and what did theydo in Littlefield and why is
(10:14):
that significant to the story?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So Roy was actually.
He grew up in Lubbock and hisfamily was the George M Hunt's
and George M Hunt actually foundit, helped found Esticado and
then the Hunt.
He actually moved from Esticadoover to Lubbock and actually it
(10:41):
was one of the founders earlyfounders of Lubbock and he was
Roy's grandfather.
And so Roy grew up, went toLubbock High School, he
eventually went to University ofTexas in Austin and then he
(11:01):
transferred to become a doctorin Galveston.
May Hunt herself and I really Istruggled for years trying to
get as much research as I couldon her, but she came from, she
grew up in Houston and shegraduated from high school and
(11:23):
then she decided she wanted tobecome a nurse and when Roy
transferred from Galveston toJeff Davis Hospital they're in
Houston to do his internship andhis residency.
That's when they met and theylater married and they moved to
(11:46):
Littlefield because Roy had beenoffered a partnership in the
Littlefield Hospital with DrDuke and that's kind of how they
came to Littlefield when solike when you even think about
in today's society of how theyweren't like big celebrities,
(12:10):
these were just regular smalltown people trying to raise
their family because they hadtheir first daughter, joanne,
and then along came Jane, andwhen you think, at least when I
think about Littlefield, aboutespecially in the 1940s, I look
(12:33):
at it as being a veryquintessential town, to where
everybody knew everybody's name,everybody knew everybody's
phone number, everybody kneweverybody, and it was that
really small town atmosphere.
But there was like probablythere was nothing really
(13:02):
remarkable about Roy or May.
It was just that they were twopeople living their lives trying
to raise their families ortrying to raise their family
there in Littlefield at thattime.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Well, kristina, was there any indication that
somebody may have been out toget them?
I mean to be honest, thiswasn't the first time that
somebody tried to kill the goodDoctor Hunt, was it?
Speaker 3 (13:29):
I know it wasn't.
So this is where the storytakes a really interesting turn.
It was a year before I think itwas about 18 months earlier,
which would have been May of1942, doctor Hunt was actually
almost murdered on the outskirtsof Littlefield.
(13:51):
And what happened was he turnedaround and accused another
Doctor of this attempted murder,and that Doctor was actually
from Cameron, texas.
So there is still, even when Ithink about this and going back
(14:12):
to my research, there is still alot of speculation on.
You know, did this reallyhappen?
I mean, did Newton actuallyshoot him or was it somebody
else?
And Doctor Newton?
(14:33):
Eventually he was tried likethree different times and then
Doctor Newton was finallyconvicted of attempted the
attempted murder of Roy, evenafter Roy had been killed.
So that's where this startsreally getting a deeper mystery
(14:55):
into a mystery, because you'relike, okay, what is going on
here, what I mean?
You have to believe the Doctor,but at the same time, was he
actually telling the truth?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well, it was all wrapped up in a love affair,
right?
That's the background story.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
That's the background story.
But the only background storythat I found was the fact that
at one time when Doctor Hunt wasthere at Jeff Davis, he had
dated Doctor Newton's wife atthat time and that was really
(15:37):
the only connection there was.
You know, rumors andspeculation they can.
You know people, they can runrampage.
We all can say, oh well, youknow, have our own thought
processes, our own.
You know, yeah, this isprobably what happened.
(15:58):
But it's kind of like when itboiled down to you, it was still
all speculation here, say, andthere was never really any
concrete evidence.
And that's what I really triedto present in this book was the
fact that all of this happenedbut in the end there was really
no concrete evidence, especiallyof Doctor Newton shooting Roy
(16:21):
in 1942.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Well, you've done a lot of research.
What do you think?
I mean, do you think that thatwas that this Doctor Newton
killed him, or was it somebodyelse?
Speaker 3 (16:35):
It was somebody else.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I think it was somebody else.
So when the police got thereLittle Pills, in small town,
even once, then you know I'msure it was a did they have a
police department or was it asheriff's department?
But they began investigating.
What did they find?
Did they do a good job?
Can you blame some of them?
Maybe what happened on thepolice afterwards?
Speaker 3 (16:54):
Oh, yes, most definitely.
So you know, this is where thestory gets become.
It becomes even more stranger.
So they zeroed in on anothersuspect, on a prime suspect.
Were they actual murderersthemselves in Galveston, texas,
like less than 48 hours later?
(17:16):
And when you even start tryingto put those pieces together,
it's kind of those pieces theydon't match to make a picture,
they don't, they don't mesh, andthere's still.
There's like there's a holehere or there's a hole here, and
(17:38):
there was never any real clearindication on why the Texas
Rangers zeroed in on this onesuspect.
Two days later, I let's see.
There was Littlefield,plainview, lamisa and Nolan
County.
He went to trial four times forthe murder of Roy.
(17:59):
He was always convicted but atthe same time it was always
overturned at the appealsprocess due to you know what the
lower court presented in courtfor the evidence and to bring
this case to trial.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
This guy Thompson Wright, I think was the person
who kind of gets all the blame.
He was a career criminal,wasn't he?
He died in committing crimeseventually, right?
So maybe he was just suspicious.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
So his name was Jim Thomas and you know, like
anybody back then I guess, hewas always trying to find a way
to make a quick buck.
So he was involved in a coupleof bank robberies.
He was involved in doing somewhite capping type enterprise
(19:06):
stuff in Waco.
But they never ever came outand said in all of my research
it was kind of like Jim Thomas,he never really killed anybody.
I mean, honestly, there wasnever a smoking gun or anything
(19:26):
that was directed right at JimThomas.
And yes, he did die.
He was shot himself in DurantOklahoma years later and once
that happened it was kind oflike, oh well, we're just
(19:46):
closing the case completely onthe hunt because we still
believe that Jim Thomas did this.
And I will tell you right now.
The really the amazing part ofthis whole story is how my book
became published.
I sent this off.
I was scared to death becauseI'm like nobody.
(20:09):
I was scared of putting my workout there.
I don't know how it was goingto be received.
I still don't know how it'sgoing to be received, but I sent
it off to three publishers andStony Creek Publishing came back
and Lauren Steffi he asked methe one question.
(20:29):
He said I read through the bookand he said do you think Jim
Thomas did it?
And I was like, came back and Isaid no, I don't.
And he said if you will do thisand do this and then if you
will give your own thoughts ofwhat you think actually happened
to this whole case, he said Iwant to publish the book.
(20:54):
So I'm extremely grateful forthat.
But the other thing that I wantto point out about what makes
this book so spectacular, orthis story so spectacular and so
grippy, is the fact that JoanneHunt she was five years old,
she was the only one who saw theactual murderer in her parents'
(21:22):
house and Joanne basically,yeah, the cops tried to talk to
her, the sheriff at that time,he tried, but he didn't really
talk to her.
And then after she wastransported to Vernon Texas, she
was bound to silence for 70years and she never talked to
(21:47):
anybody about her story.
She never even talked to hersister, jane, about her story,
about what happened in thathouse that night.
That is the most significantpart of this, because I have her
story.
Nobody else has the story.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
That's unbelievable, that's amazing.
So sounds like the police, theTexas Rangers, like they often
do, zeroed in on one person.
Did they ever think about anyother suspects?
Was there anybody else ever onthe radar for this?
They just it's the one, he'sthe only one, nobody else.
And you're working at this.
Would you come up with anybodyelse that may have done it?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Okay.
So my thing is, what I came upwith it was somebody that knows
them, that knew them at thattime and it knew them intimately
, that knew the layout of thehouse and the true victim was
never the true.
(22:49):
The actual victim was neversupposed to be Roy.
May was always May because ifyou remember, scott, what you
said at the very beginning ofthis podcast about the passion
and all of that, if you look atthe facts and you look at the
(23:10):
prime scene photos and you putall those pieces together, may
was always the victim.
She was the target.
It was never about Roy, wow.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Who could that have been?
Was it?
We're talking about anotherlove triangle, perhaps, or
something?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
like that.
We have to wait till the bookcomes in, maybe.
Speaker 3 (23:35):
Yeah, you'll have to wait for the book.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Well, I gotta say you know I knew of this crime
because I did an oral historywhen I worked at the Southwest
Collection with Harold LaFont,who I think was the DA in Lamb
County at the time, and heshowed me, he gave me to put in
the Southwest Collectionphotographs.
(24:00):
They never made it in therebecause they were really graphic
and so I've seen the murderscene and the police and I think
I shared those with you a longtime ago and you know, I gotta
say you know you're talkingabout how the daughter didn't
(24:20):
speak about it for 70 years.
I can imagine she was quitetraumatized and it took a long
time to get over that.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Well, it's not so much that she was traumatized,
it was the fact that her aunt,at that time where she was
staying, said that she wouldnever get to see her baby sister
Jane ever again.
If she spoke about whathappened in that house ever
again, really yes.
So Jane Joanne, actually, yes,she did testify in court.
(24:56):
But you know, even back thenprosecutors, the DA's lawyers,
they didn't really sit down andtry to talk to witnesses before
they brought them up on thewitness stand.
It was always like, you know,they leaned it and yes, we do
this podcast.
(25:16):
Yeah Well, I mean, you know,Jean, I wanted to tell you that
it's kind of like so, after Idid that paper presentation,
they're in Lubbock and that waswhat the largest presentation
attendance ever by any WestTexas at any West Texas
(25:37):
Historical Associationconference meeting.
And then you walked up as meand Cecily are sitting there on
the couch and you tell meChristina, you need to turn this
into the book.
Oh, and, by the way, I had theoriginal crime scene photos.
Do you know what that did to me?
It was kind of like, oh my gosh, I you know.
(25:58):
And then those pieces startedfalling in place.
And, yeah, it took a long timefor me to get this done.
But you know what Life happens.
And life happens you have todeal with what you're dealt,
what is put on your plate, andthen you move on, and then you
get brave and then all of asudden decide, okay, in one, you
(26:22):
know, one night.
Here goes, you know, my threeproposals all to three
publishers.
We'll see what happens.
And this is where we are today.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
So how long total?
Christina?
Did you work on this book?
I mean, we've all had projectsthat take us a long time, so
give us you know it sounds likebits and start.
How long did you work on thisbook?
Speaker 3 (26:42):
So it was over 10 years.
It really was.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
But you know, look, a lot of people work on books for
a long, long time, so I thinkthat you know you had plenty of
time to think about it, and soit's probably a better book now
than it would have been 10 yearsago.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Oh, absolutely.
It's a better book than itwould have been even five years
ago.
I mean, you have to understand,I was trying to consider
telling this story and at thesame time, when it was almost
like I've always wanted to throwin my speculation of what
(27:32):
happened, especially afterdealing with this for so long
and being immersed in it for solong.
And when Lauren came back andsaid, you know, if you add what
you actually think, your authorsthought that was just like oh
my gosh, he is.
You know, he is the person thatneeds to do this, he gets it,
(27:57):
he understands what needs tohappen with this.
So there you have it.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
So this case is officially closed.
I guess you said after becausethey just decided that Jim
Thomas did it and even they didit that it's officially closed.
So do you think there's anychance that it could be reopened
?
That somebody might actuallyhey look, let's find out who did
it Some cold-clays people orsomething like that.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
I think, if so, in my gut, in my gut, there is still
somebody out there that knowssomething.
I could be mistaken, but that'smy gut.
Sometimes my gut does not lieor lead me astray.
I think that there is somethingout there.
(28:52):
Technically, even though, yes,they said the case was closed
after the murder of Jim Thomas,this is still an unsolved murder
.
It's an unsolved double murderbecause you have no answers as
to who, as to why.
I mean yes, I alluded to thewhy in my author's thoughts.
(29:14):
Even with Joanne's narrativethat's in this book, you pick up
on that, that's.
The other thing I'd like to sayis the fact that until I heard
Joanne's story and I heard ittwice, that's when I started
putting the pieces together thatit was.
(29:34):
This was about May, it wasnever about Roy.
Speaker 2 (29:42):
Well, that sounds really interesting.
One of the things that I thinkthat it tells us you hit upon
this is that policing in law andorder weren't like the TV shows
that we see today, or even thereal justice system.
It's long, it's complex and,back in those days, probably a
(30:05):
little bit more naive than it istoday.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Oh yes, and I mean mistakes even today still happen
and still occur.
But even it was more so evenback then, even with the birth
of forensics and what wasavailable back then.
And even I go into that in achapter of that because I
(30:30):
remember it, one presentation Ididn't love it.
I had a wonderful little oldlady speak up and she was like
well, can't you go back and digthose bodies up and get some DNA
off of them?
And I just, you know, it'sthose moments that it makes you.
That is what carried this bookto where it is today.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Before we go.
Chris, I meant to ask you thisearlier and I just get carried
away and it didn't.
You know, paul Cross used topress on Jean and I probably you
probably heard him say this too.
Titles mean thing.
Tell everybody why the titlebound in silence.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
Oh my gosh, you are going to.
You're going to be amazed bythis.
So this book has evolved withso many titles over the years
and it came down to it earlylast year where my publisher was
like we need a title, we need atitle, you need to come up with
(31:28):
a title.
So Jenny, who is really youknow, she is my best friend we
were on the phone.
We got on the phone with eachother and we started, you know,
writing things out, typingthings out, and with her
(31:48):
collaboration, that's what wecame up with was the bound in
silence.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
It's a great title.
I wish I could come up withgreat titles.
I've never had a title.
That's stuck.
You know the editors go that'snice and they change it.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah, and you know, the great thing about Lauren was
the fact that you know he wasvery, you know he was very hands
on with this entire process,but at the same time, once we
decided on this, he was like,yeah, let's go for it.
So that's how that titleevolved.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
That's great.
Well, christina, I think 30minutes that comes quickly all
the time when we do this, so soI just want to remind everybody.
First off, thanks for talkingto us.
It's been great.
This is fantastic.
I didn't know.
I'd kind of heard of this, Ididn't know this much about it
and I can't wait till the bookgets here so I can read it.
It's from Texas A&M UniversityPress.
Found in silence an unsolvedmurder in a small Texas town.
(32:46):
Thank you for being with us somuch.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Thank you both Thank you.
Speaker 2 (32:51):
Thank you, Christina.
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